8 ways to write shorter tweets and subject lines

The world is full of sensible advice that’s hard to put into practice.

Do more exercise.

Reduce your stress levels.

Accept that salt and vinegar flavor chips are not, in fact, a mainstay of a well-balanced diet. (Damn).

Oh, and keep your tweets and subject lines short.

Actually you can argueabout that last bit of advice. But if you have something to say and have two equally impactful ways of saying it, then pick the shorter one.

Often it’s just a question of practicality.

Shortening your Tweets makes it easier to fit the message within the 140 character limit. If you can get the length down further, then you leave enough space for people to retweet your message in its entirety*.

I’m hoping you’ll offer your own suggestions in the comments, as there’s not a lot of practical advice out there beyond, um, “keep it short”.

But here a few tips I’ve picked up over the years…

1. Rewrite

The famous quote commonly attributed to Blaise Pascal runs something like this:

“I have made this letter longer than usual, only because I have not had the time to make it shorter.”

My biggest challenge with copywriting emails, for example, is not finding the words, but finding fewer words to express the same meaning.

Your first line of text probably does communicate what you want to say, but it takes rewrites to communicate it succinctly.

2. Synonyms are your best friends

Rare is the word with no alternative. We often fall into patterns and habits, where we favor particular words simply because they’re the ones we’ve always used. Perhaps you can find shorter synonyms? For example:

Excellent article onGreat article on
Top article on
Top post on (9 spaces saved)

Purchase
Buy (5 spaces saved)

Difficult
Hard (5 spaces saved)

Lots of
Many (3 spaces saved)

Last year
In 2011 (2 spaces saved)

A few
Some (1 space saved)

But take care…

Not all synonyms are truly identical and a different word can introduce a subtle change in meaning.

Even true synonyms can draw a slightly different emotional response in the reader. In subject lines, particularly, it pays to test variations to find the choice that elicits the best response.

These two concepts apply to many of the tips below, too, so keep them in mind.

3. Eliminate implied and unnecessary words

Do you have any words that are not contributing to the message? Words with no impact on the meaning, value, emotion, etc. of the tweet or subject?

These are common candidates for freeing up space.

If tweeting as an individual, for example, the “I” in “I love this article:” is implicit. “Love this article:” would be fine.

Where possible, scrap unnecessary modifiers like “that”, “which” and “who”:

The presenter who was after me
The presenter after me

New products that you’ll love
New products you’ll love

You can shorten phrases using contractions:

Tips for summer fashions
Summer fashion tips

People in New York love Apple
New Yorkers love Apple

This is an article that really engages:
A really engaging article:

4. Mathematical symbols and numerals

Styleguides typically say numbers up to ten should appear as words, not numerals. But you have more flexibility in tweets and subject lines:

Seven ways to win with words
7 ways to win with words

“&” or “+” or even “/” can substitute for “and”:

Email more popular than beer and chocolate
Email more popular than beer & chocolate

The “>” and “<” symbols can be used for “less than”, “more than”, “under”, “over”…with certain audiences:

Fewer than 10% of marketers test their copy
<10% of marketers test their copy

Try “=” instead of “equals”, “means”, “leads to” etc.:

Donut consumption shown to lead to higher risk of stomach ache
More donuts = more stomach aches

8. URL shorteners

Needless to say, anyone putting a link in a tweet should use one of the common URL shortening services out there. The popular tools used to send tweets should make this easy. So the Hootsuite tool turns:

And finally…

Short, concise writing can destroy style, humor, emotion and personality if handled badly. And these may be the very things that differentiate you from the competition or drive higher responses. Words matter and, sometimes, long beats short.

So…your tips please!

*You need two spaces for the RT, then a space, then your username plus a colon plus a space: so tweets by @MarkatEMR need to be 125 characters or less to be retweeted as RT @MarkatEMR: Blah Blah

One more for Twitter space saving:
Use a question. So instead of ‘If you’re a service business, read this great article that tells you how to …’ write’Service business? Great article that tells you how to …

Often, in English, a word derived from the Germanic side of our linguistic history will be shorter and punchier than one drawn from our French/Romance roots. Consider our most popular swear-words, for example.

But I’d also like to suggest that longer words can be effective if they are especially powerful or evocative. “Utilize” brings nothing useful to the table. “Carbuncle” (as in your Shakespeare quote) is probably – in the right circumstances – worth the space it takes.

Compelling and engaging headlines that are short and precise work much better than the long winded tweets that we often see.

Also in a junk free diet at the moment but did succumb to some maltesers yesterday that were “the lighter way to enjoy chocolate. I find it easier to indulge on a lot less of a level than “pigging out”

Mark, your post on subject lines brings about a couple of thoughts from me. 1. Always ask, “Who do I wish to read this email?” and make sure you write to them. i.e ‘Attention… Only Serious Email Marketers Should Read This’ or ‘At Last! Email Subject Line Examples That WORK’ My second thought is to repeat or build upon your subject line in an Email Subject Line. i.e. ‘Attention… Only Serious Email Marketers Should Read This’ – in the email becomes – Hi (First Name) This email is only for serious email marketers – Let me explain… AND ‘At Last! Email Subject Line Examples That WORK’ becomes in the email..Hi (First Name) These four email subject line types work. Learn how you can use them in your email marketing today… Testing is crucial if you wish to remain in this game. It gives you a chance to follow up on winning or losing stats.

Good article – but to your Point 4; I was under the impression that using symbols in your subject line will dramatically increase the likelihood of your email being marked as spam… any thoughts on this?

The short answer is that using symbols like “=” will not dramatically increase your chances of being blocked as spam.

The idea that they do dates back to a few years ago when subject line checks were basically the main kind of spam filter. Even then, it was more words like “VI@GRA” they were looking for, not whether you had a “/” in there.

Spam checks today look at dozens of factors and the role of the subject line check has been downvalued considerably.

Here’s a white paper I wrote on the topic of getting emails delivered which covers all you’d need to know.